Manitoba elder Raymond Robinson ends hunger strike

An aboriginal leader protesting federal policy has ended his hunger strike after five days and 15 hours, leaving some wondering how effective his action has been.

Raymond Robinson, a grand elder from Cross Lake, Man., sent out a tweet on the social media site Twitter at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, announcing he had ended his no-liquid, no-food strike at midnight.

Originally Robinson said his hunger strike would continue until changes to First Nations funding agreements that he objects to were revoked.

Robinson was also asking for the Government of Canada to sit down with his First Nations leaders on a “nation to nation basis.”

There was no indication on Tuesday that the government had modified any policies as a result of his strike.

“In terms of moving the present government, or pushing politicians to change their positions on policy I don’t think it has had much effect at all, I don’t think it has had any effect,” said Bob Lovelace, a former chief of the Ardoch Algonquins, a non-status band that has historically been located in the Madawaska, and Rideau watersheds, as well as near the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

“I think that what it does is it generates public interest, and it brings a few more Canadians to understand that the situation for Aboriginal people in Canada is an ongoing problem,” he said.

Lovelace is a global development studies professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. When asked about the impact future hunger strikes would have after Robinson’s, Lovelace said he felt they would not be taken as seriously in the future.

“I think that it becomes quite evident that individual demonstrations, individual sacrifice, really isn’t going to be all that effective,” he said. “Its OK a couple of times, but aboriginal people are simply going to have to ratchet up their activist activities in order to get real change in this country.”

Niki Ashton, the MP for Churchill Manitoba, where Cross Lake is located, said that she doesn’t think the government is listening to First Nations, and that Robinson’s actions speak to just how far First Nations people have to go in order to be heard.